On this episode of The Vergecast, we take a look back at the year as it comes to a close. Nilay and David are joined by Joanna Stern, senior tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal, to go over a few of their predictions from last year, before digging into all the best and worst and biggest stories of 2025.

Some of the categories we picked this year wound up being pretty easy, like the surprising success story of the year and the worst new buzzword. Others were more complicated, and offered lots of answers: what was the gadget of the year? And, far more important, which Big Tech CEO would actually make the best podcast host? The gang doesn’t always agree, but we’re always full of thoughts.

We also want to hear from you, on all the superlative categories we discussed. What would you have picked for Best AI Thing? Which product that died this year makes you the most sad? Tell us everything: drop a comment here, call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11, or send us an email at vergecast@theverge.com. And stay tuned for next week, when we launch our spiciest predictions for 2026. Ignore that we got most of our 2025 predictions wrong — we’re going to nail it this year.

","freeContentEncoded","textContent","published","strategy","curl-ready","locked","deletedAt","isSyncedFromOwnBlog","original","duplicatesCount","duplicateVersion","originalArticleId","errorsCount","appearance","color","backgroundColor","shortSummary","The Vergecast looks back at 2025, discussing predictions, best/worst stories, and engaging listeners for their own takes. Predictions for 2026 are promised for next week.","summary","Nilay, David, and Joanna Stern review predictions from the previous year and discuss the best, worst, and biggest stories of 2025. They cover categories like the gadget of the year and which Big Tech CEO would be the best podcast host. Listeners are encouraged to share their own picks for various superlative categories and will hear 2026 predictions next week.","bullets",[309,310,311,312,313],"The Vergecast episode reviews the year 2025.","Guests Joanna Stern joins Nilay and David to discuss predictions.","Topics include best/worst stories, gadget of the year, and best Big Tech CEO podcast host.","Listeners are invited to share their own category picks.","2026 predictions will be featured in the next episode.","persons",[316,317,318],"Nilay","David","Joanna Stern","places",[],"words",196,"sentiment","subject","tech","meta",{"_328":329,"_330":331,"_355":336},"type","bee:get-index-of-articles","schedule",{"_27":332,"_50":-5,"_333":175,"_83":-5,"_334":199,"_335":336,"_337":89,"_86":87,"_324":123,"_338":-5,"_339":87,"_290":291,"_340":341,"_54":341,"_342":343,"_344":89,"_345":346,"_56":341,"_347":89,"_85":124,"_348":349,"_350":-5,"_351":352,"_353":-5,"_354":-5},"420afd2e-c7af-4502-876b-d55f4a27200f","npub","order","rssUrl","https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence","system","userRef","autosign","syncedAt","2025-12-08T13:10:53.526Z","frequency","daily","isOwnBlog","nextRunAt","2025-12-10T13:11:45.191Z","autopublish","sourceVariant","rss","systemVariant","scheduleVariant","scraping-bee-classic-proxy","retryArticlesIds","ownershipConfirmedAt","dataSourceUrl","eventId","54a6b81b146d02c6291c2a1010a8e53b9ad0cb0293befe5e98c9e0042a988bda","nostrRootEvent","event",{"_27":357,"_361":362,"_141":199,"_83":363,"_375":374,"_283":376,"_377":378},"sig","1805c3d384386a1c72d3eff0ed240fc0c37d3470b70a159a0e5cfe71049ded36b9dc0a48360ef7ca8311eea4e992e4104e9de27e5b2c0661e91639d48c3d218b",[364,365,366,370,373],[324,269],[44,276],[367,368,51,369],"a","30023:c3875abd667e3d145a490ef13c953323db26b96b9da091a409902bf5ee629c9c:75b1a567-f715-4a63-8c0e-a8ecd3d1aab5","mention",[371,372],"client","Layer3.press",[144,374,51],"c3875abd667e3d145a490ef13c953323db26b96b9da091a409902bf5ee629c9c","pubkey","The Vergecast 2025 year in review\nPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.\n\n\nnostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpsu8t27kvl3az3dyjrh38j2nxg7my6ukh8dqjxjqnypt7hhx98yuqqjrwdtzx9sn2d3h94nrwvf4956xzd3n95uxxvr994snsetrvsekgvtpv93r2n8kk5l ","created_at",1765372388,"authorNPub","markdown","On this episode of _The Vergecast_, we take a look back at the year as it comes to a close. Nilay and David are joined by [Joanna Stern](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnpNk6kWvVc), senior tech columnist at _The Wall Street Journal_, to go over a few of their predictions from last year, before digging into all the best and worst and biggest stories of 2025.\n\nSome of the categories we picked this year wound up being pretty easy, like the surprising success story of the year and the worst new buzzword. Others were more complicated, and offered lots of answers: what _was_ the gadget of the year? And, far more important, which Big Tech CEO would _actually_ make the best podcast host? The gang doesn’t always agree, but we’re always full of thoughts.\n\nWe also want to hear from you, on all the superlative categories we discussed. What would you have picked for Best AI Thing? Which product that died this year makes you the most sad? Tell us everything: drop a comment here, call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11, or send us an email at vergecast@theverge.com. And stay tuned for next week, when we launch our spiciest predictions for 2026. Ignore that we got most of our 2025 predictions wrong — we’re going to nail it this year.","freeMarkdown","kind1EventId","kind30023EventId","0a9ec11bfc2f7ccd8c239d21751f457a61bb3b20392a108ef62fe89026add035","kind30023",{"_27":385,"_361":388,"_141":389,"_83":390,"_375":374,"_283":404,"_377":378},"09ff291de1d795cded93403b69fb2b5909c5045ac3c7d3834f6a93718a080589d41708d6a51255cebd89dc5afc95fe0464920097dd94dec6649fe2281b580f84",30023,[391,394,395,398,399,401,402,403],[392,393],"r","https://ai.layer3.press/articles/75b1a567-f715-4a63-8c0e-a8ecd3d1aab5",[40,269],[396,397],"published_at","1765291500",[44,276],[400,264],"d",[305,270],[371,372],[144,374,51],"The Vergecast 2025 year in review\nNilay, David, and Joanna Stern review predictions from the previous year and discuss the best, worst, and biggest stories of 2025. They cover categories like the gadget of the year and which Big Tech CEO would be the best podcast host. Listeners are encouraged to share their own picks for various superlative categories and will hear 2026 predictions next week.\n - The Vergecast episode reviews the year 2025.\n - Guests Joanna Stern joins Nilay and David to discuss predictions.\n - Topics include best/worst stories, gadget of the year, and best Big Tech CEO podcast host.\n - Listeners are invited to share their own category picks.\n - 2026 predictions will be featured in the next episode.\n","publishedToNostr","htmlContentKind30023","

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